


Taken for Granted

by larxenethefirefly



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Miscommunication, assumed infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 18:43:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1398481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larxenethefirefly/pseuds/larxenethefirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose catches the Doctor snogging another. He tries to explain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taken for Granted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bittie752](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittie752/gifts).



> This was an ask-box/submission fic for Bittie752 on Tumblr ages ago, and I just now found it again, lol. Angst galore! (But the ending is happy don't worry)

It’s like the spaceship and Madame Du Pompadour all over again.

Except this time it’s worse, because now they’re together and he still runs and flirts with the nearest willing body.

(which is practically everyone)

She shouldn’t have forced him to go to tea with her mum. Then he wouldn’t have gotten spooked by the idea of marriage and they would still be laughing over the antics of other people in the pub. 

But how long would that have delayed this? How long until Jackie came to the flat and talked about it, or over the phone? How long until he realized that he was approaching domesticity with a frightening speed and had to leave?

The pain would be the same, she knew, but even if it would have been a day later, it would still be one more day of thinking that this time would be different.

The curvaceous strawberry blonde giggled as they broke apart, his tie wrapped around her hand, and Rose snapped. Her drink in her hand, she marched over to them and promptly dumped it over the woman’s head. As the woman shrieked she whirled and punched the Doctor in the face.

In the sudden silence that descended save for the jukebox in the corner merrily blasting out Kylie Minogue, Rose spat out, “You can collect your things from the sidewalk. Hope your new girlfriend doesn’t mind you dismantling the blender every week and having to step around piles of your so-called experiments.”

She stormed out, tears burning but she refused to let fall as he called after her. Rose ignored him. Stupid girl, she had fallen again for someone who took her for granted. 

Never again, she thought. And he better have a bloody good explanation for this, since she had no doubt he’d sleep on her doorstop until he explained himself. And she was not going to resort to using the fire escape to get in and out of her own flat. 

As she walked home, she tried over and over to get the image of him wrapped around another woman out of her head, but the more she tried to ignore it, the more the image burned.

~*~

Despite having lived in Pete’s World for nearly a year, the Doctor had very little in the way of personal possessions, since he mostly rotated wearing three suits and a week’s worth of pants. She threw his clothing and personal hygiene items in one bag, and his scrap metal and projects as well as the past three blenders divided into four others. His ties were a little harder to find, and she didn’t start crying until she found a brown one with roses stitched in pink and yellow peeking out from under her bed. It had been a gift from her three months in. Uncertainty crashed over her- what if it wasn’t her mother’s mention of a wedding, but Rose herself? Every day since being stuck he’d said he loved her, but not once had she returned the sentiment. She had been scared that those words would cause him to disappear again, and he had seemed to understand when she explained it to him. Not three hours earlier he had said it again as they were curled up together on the couch. It seemed the curse had finally kicked in.

A pounding started on the door of the flat, and she didn’t need the voice to know it was him. She had taken the keys, after all, since he had lost his copy last week and hadn’t felt the need to get a new one. Rose thought it served him right.

In no mood whatsoever to face him, Rose stood, tears still pouring, and scribbled a quick letter to inform him that his things were in the ally. She tossed the bags over the balcony, then slid the letter under the door before closing the curtains in the bedroom. Miserably she curled up on her side of the bed, face buried in the pillow. 

Her only warning was a scratching noise, and suddenly something crashed into her room. She bolted up, and upon seeing the Doctor sprawled on her bedroom floor, she groaned. Of course. Of course he’d find another way in. Except she was too tired to do anything other than roll back over and hope that if she ignored him, he’d go away.

“Rose,” he pleaded, as he scrambled upright. “Rose, I can explain.”

“Go away, Doctor,” she said wearily. “I saw what happened with my own eyes, I don’t need an explanation.”

“No, you do,” he argued, and tried to roll her over so she could face him. Rose flinched and rolled to her stomach instead, grabbing another pillow and pulling it over her. He tugged it out of her hands. “Rose, she was an Urashian. You know they communicate through kissing.”

She snorted. “I’ve seen a Urashian, Doctor. Jack was snogging one that time we needed transport around Vitaly. They looked like misshapen worms with bear claws.”

“That’s what the males look like,” he replied. “The females look human on the outside. Once they get past a certain age they’ll resemble the males more. I met one once whose claws were seven feet long… anyway, that’s not the point. Rose, how could you think I’d cheat on you? I lo-”

“Don’t say that!” Rose shouted, keeping her back to him as she scrambled across the bed and lurched into a half-sitting, half-standing position at the other side. “Don’t you dare say that. You don’t mean it.”

She could hear the outrage in his voice. “I mean it every time I say it, Rose! How could you doubt me?”  
Rose held up one hand and began raising her fingers as she counted. “You panicked when Mum mentioned marriage even though she was talking about her friend Gracie. During the interview with that magazine you called me your friend, even though we’ve been sleeping together since day one, practically, and a week prior I told the same reporter we were dating. Three, you’ve had lunch with other women more times than you’ve had with me! Do you want me to continue?”

He was silent and Rose had begun to think he had left when he spoke. “I made us leave when your mother started talking about marriage because I thought you didn’t want it, and I didn’t want you to feel manipulated. And I called you my best friend when the reporter asked who it was, but she twisted the article and completely ignored me when I said you were also the love of my life. And those lunches that were with other people were so I could get to know the people I was working with only after you told me that you couldn’t meet me that day. I told you when we got to the pub that I had a contact to meet, didn’t I?”

She shook her head. “You could have told me, you could have-” 

His hand closed around her shoulder; this time she didn’t move away as he sat down beside her. “She was about to leave and I didn’t have time to explain. I thought someone had told you beforehand, but I should have known better, really.” When she didn’t reply his hand slowly crept to her other shoulder to pull her into his side.

Rose curled against him automatically, her tears falling silently. “What’s all this about, Rose?” He asked. “You aren’t normally this… emotional.”

She knew he was trying to be delicate, and her lips tilted upward slightly before she frowned once more. “Helen,” Rose admitted quietly.

He blinked. “Helen? Your sort-of boss?”

“She… she fancies you. And normally I would have brought the attention to my dad but I don’t want to play favorites. But she… well, it’s clear she thinks you deserve her, not me. And I ignored her comments, at first. But after hearing her say that I didn’t deserve you because I couldn’t even say… that I couldn’t tell you how I feel, I began to wonder. And two weeks ago, during my physical, the doctor said…” She swallowed and took his other hand in hers, then placed it on her stomach.

“You’re…?” His voice was soft, reverent. 

“Little over two months; ‘s twins.” She whispered. “I.. I didn’t know how to tell you. Or if you even wanted kids.”

He slid off the bed to kneel before her, ducking his head so he could catch her eyes. “Rose, how could I not? Making a family with you… it’s more than I dared to hope for.” He delicately pulled her into an embrace, as if knowing how fragile she was feeling at the moment. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about Bernard, the Urashian. I really did think you knew, and that’s why you were there.”

“I asked your co workers where you were so I could tell you about the babies,” Rose replied. “I’d finally worked up the courage to tell you.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We really need to work on our communication,” he murmured, and Rose let out a short laugh. “Are we really having twins?”

“The doctor detected two heart beats, and the ultrasound was able to find them. They’re… I never thought I’d be a mum, Doctor. But when I saw them… they’re beautiful. I wish you could have been there.”

The Doctor gripped her tightly, brushing his lips over her face. “I will. From now until forever. I swear, Rose. I will not let you go. I love you.”

She snuggled further into him, feeling the hurt and worry bleed out slowly. “I know. And I do too.”


End file.
